As Needham opens up applications for alcohol store licenses, one Belmont-based specialty beer store is already expressing its hope to be one of the first alcohol package stores in town.

Wei-Huan Chen

As Needham opens up applications for alcohol store licenses, one Belmont-based specialty beer store is already expressing its hope to be one of the first alcohol package stores in town.

Owners of Craft Beer Cellar have announced their goal to come into Needham, saying their store is a good fit for the community. On Jan. 1, co-owners and ex-restaurateurs Suzanne Schalow and Kate Baker launched a social media campaign about its intended expansion by creating the Twitter handle “CBC_Needham” and the Facebook page “Craft Beer Cellar Needham.”

“It would be our honor to open a Craft Beer Cellar in Needham and make available to you some of the best beer in the world,” said the Facebook page.

The Board of Selectmen is accepting alcohol package store licenses from Jan. 7 through Jan. 18. On Feb. 2, Selectmen will hold an all-day public hearing with the applicants and will discuss their decisions at a following meeting.

Although the special ballot to legalize the offsite sale of alcohol—which residents overwhelmingly supported on Nov. 6—allows for up to six licenses at once, selectmen will likely only choose two to four licenses, according to Selectman John Bulian. The licenses will be a combination of wine and beer licenses, full liquor licenses and wine and beer licenses for grocery stores.

Ultimately, the licenses will become the first in Needham to allow stores to sell packaged beer, wine and liquor since Prohibition. But Schalow and Baker were planning to expand their business to Needham months before the town passed the alcohol measure last fall.

“We’ve had our finger on the pulse of Needham for over a year,” said Schalow, who co-owns Craft Beer Cellar with Baker. “People are ready to live in a relevant century.”

“The biggest surprise is that it’s taken this long,” said Needham resident Brian Shaw. If granted a license, Shaw will become the owner and manager of Craft Beer Cellar’s Needham location.

“People want to enjoy their beverages. What we’ve done is take our dollars outside of town, when instead we could shop local and keep those dollars in town,” he said.

Craft Beer Cellar is a specialty beer, wine and apparel store that carries 817 craft beer from 313 craft breweries, according to the store’s website. Its beer selection in the Belmont store is arranged by region: New England and locally brewed beers form a high shelf on the right while the store’s far left corner features European ales like the Westmalle Trappist Ale, a creamy beer imported from a Belgian monastery and brewed by Trappist monks.

“Craft Beer Cellar is not a typical liquor store. There’s no lottery, there’s no cigarettes, there’s no nips. It’s not that sort of feel,” said Shaw.

The store does not carry brands such as Budweiser, Miller or Coors. Instead, “Our focus is breweries with a small, traditional, independent status,” said Baker. “The New England section is our biggest component. But we have anything from a west coast IPA to a Massachusetts beer with completely local ingredients. We have lovely little Belgian ales. England and Germany are our next two biggest regions, with everything else we can squeeze in between.”

Schalow admitted there are challenges for the potential expansion. She said Needham is “an awesome place with the backbone of a strong economy,” but the town will possibly be looking at up to 30 applicants. “Certainly there’s competition,” she said.

Craft Beer Cellar will also have to face a community concerned about where the store might end up during the Feb. 2 public hearings. Owners of Craft Beer Cellar said they are still determining a location in Needham.

Schalow said they have gotten along great with the Belmont community since the store’s founding in 2010, and that they did not typically run into underage buyers with fake IDs. “We don’t have these issues. We have serious people looking to experiment with and explore beer,” she said.

Town officials said Needham could see its first alcohol stores by Spring 2013. Schalow hopes Craft Beer Cellar has done the research and legwork necessary for a Needham location. All that’s left to do, she said, is “hope for the good graces of the town.”

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